Robaato Rasamu was starting to think he’d made life far too difficult for himself by refusing to manage in England and attempting to complete his Pentagon Pursuit with teams that have never previously won the European Champions League. Twenty years into his career as a Football Manager, FC Bayern’s consecutive Invincible seasons had left him feeling downright depressed and he needed a few days away from football.
However, a little chink in the Bayern armour could have been exposed as Luis Enrique decided to retire after six years at the club. Rasamu’s break in the serene Swiss Alps, celebrating moving into the 60th year of his life, was rudely interrupted by a phone call offering him the vacant Bayern role, which he was sorely tempted by but they weren’t an option given their seven Champions League successes.
Regardless, Rasamu was very much committed to the VfB Stuttgart cause. His time away gave him time to assess the squad and decide which players should stay and which needed to move on. The result was a mass exodus, including winger Kenan Nuhic going to Fenerbahce for £31.5m and the likes of Martin Glover, Brent Breukhoven, Spasoje Kocic, Henrik Bek Hansen and Jorge Luis Mancera departing for an additional £43m.
A key area Rasamu wanted to strengthen was up front and he got his main target Peter Goodwin for £38.5m from Southampton. Joining him was another exciting defender Denilho Grootheusheidkamp for up to £45.5m from AZ, 18-year-old holding midfielder Gabriel Rancati for £26m from SPAL and backup striker Guido Araujo for £2.5m from Aldovisi.
Rasamu had also had a tactical rethink, reverting to the 4-2-3-1 approach he’d used a couple of seasons ago with a few tweaks to roles and instructions. Bruno will step up as the starting right winger with star player Serhiy Mazurenko pushed forward as the advanced playmaker.
Can Stuttgart Challenge Bayern?
Rasamu’s summer business saw Stuttgart made second favourites for Bundesliga at 16/1 while Bayern unsurprisingly remain huge 2/9 favourites.
Goodwin hit the ground running in the season opener at home to Bochum, creating the opener for Bruno then latching onto winger Ángel Galeano’s pass to score after 12 minutes. Stuttgart absolutely dominated and Galeano bagged a brace and Bruno followed suit to make it 5-0 inside 32 minutes. Goodwin doubled his tally from an outrageous Galeano cross after the break, Bruno wrapped up his hat trick and they opened the campaign with a new club record 7-0 victory.
They backed that up with a 1-0 win at Leipzig, hammering Wolfsburg 4-1 brace then a 6-1 win at Hertha led by a Havard Fuglehaug double. Meanwhile, Bayern drew two of their first three then lost for the first time in 85 matches 3-2 at Dortmund. A big moment saw Dejan Vujicic return from damaged cruciate ligaments by securing a 1-1 at Leverkusen before he scored the winner at home to early leaders Dortmund. But even bigger was his 95th-minute strike to nick a 2-1 win over 10-man Bayern, who led undeservedly through yet another of Rasamu’s former Paranaense players Joaquin Valeri.
That gave them confidence to continue on a rich vein of form, including a Goodwin brace inspiring a 4-1 win at Frankfurt and late goals by Groothuesheidkamp and Mazurenko edging a 3-1 success at Koln. That took them into a lengthy winter break with a healthy seven-point lead over Dortmund and eight points clear of Bayern, after only dropping points once in 15 games. Galeano led the league with eight assists and a 7.61 average rating and Marek Bílek led the way with eight clean sheets.
Tricky Champions League Fixtures
Stuttgart’s Champions League games included trips to PSG and Spurs and entertaining Barcelona. They started by visiting PSG, began brightly before the hosts obviously scored their first shot and lost 2-0. A much better performance, which didn’t take much, came at home to Ferencvaros as centre back Hashem Salari opened the scoring and, 22 shots later, Mazurenko doubled the lead to open the floodgates for a 4-0 victory.
Bruno’s strike just about edged a 1-0 win over Lyon before an entertaining 1-1 at home to Barca and a pretty turgid 1-1 at Feyenoord. They looked to have blown a huge chance at Kobenhavn, who scored in the 86th minute after Bruno had missed an early penalty. But a late show by homegrown midfielder Adrian Keckeisen score an immediate equaliser then lay on the winner for Vujicic. That left Stuttgart sitting in 13th place with two games remaining, one of which was a trip to leaders Tottenham.
Brazililan winger Bruno had really stepped up this season, scoring 12 in 21 with six assists. Goodwin had made a bright start with 11 goals and seven assists in 16 games but Galeano was again their star man with 10 assists, five goals and a 7.62 average rating in 16 appearances.
Could Stuttgart maintain their strong league start to challenge Bayern’s Bundesliga stranglehold? And could they battle through to the European knockout rounds? Join us on Friday to find out!
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